


Socialized Anxiety

by HerbertBest



Category: Game Grumps
Genre: Babies, Considering Having More Kids, Curtain Fic, Established Relationship, Humor, Kid Fic, Multi, Visitors
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-02-04
Updated: 2018-02-04
Packaged: 2019-03-13 12:16:06
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,189
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13570413
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/HerbertBest/pseuds/HerbertBest
Summary: When Dan's college friend visits with his family, some unexpected feelings stir up for Holly.





	Socialized Anxiety

**Author's Note:**

> Another part of the Plausible Deniability Universe!

Holly was nervous enough as it was. This was the first time she’d ever met these people – Dan’s college friends, a guy he’d shared a dorm with in Boston and had still kept light contact with through Facebook – and she was incredibly concerned with looking and seeming like a whole, normal mom. 

Dan was intermediately good at the social thing and he was the one who had scrubbed the house and their daughter while Holly had fussed over the food, packing Ross into an attractive outfit, worried about what she’d wear, found games on their X-Box to play and the right wine to chill. Fortunately, when he was in the right mood he was everyone’s friend. But for Holly it was as if Dan had a million friends and sometimes the pressure of keeping their names straight made her panic. She wanted to melt into the wall with her wine and pretend no one was looking at her, judging her tattoos and her bright hair and the art they’d hung on the wall.

Wren was the situation’s saving grace. When the doorbell rang and Rich and Emily came through the front door with their six-month old, Wren planted her feet on the floor and jutted out her hand. “Hi!” she piped. “My name is Wren, I’m four, and I play the drums!”

Both adults indulgently shook Wren’s hand. “Do you?” Emily asked. She bent at the waist so Wren could see the baby. Wren peered into the blanket and then at the two of them, thinking intently as Emily said, “this is Tawny.”

“What does she do?” Wren asked.

“She’s only six months old,” Emily said. “She doesn’t do anything.”

“Oh,” Wren said, then shrugged. “Mama,” she said to Holly, “is it time for dinner?”

“In a minute, sweetie,” Holly said. She was taking off jackets and exchanging pleasantries. Dan was explaining Wren’s drumming away to Rich, a pleasant-looking, balding man with a skinny tie printed all over with clown faces.

“She’s already got the genes, man,” Dan said. “She’s a little natural.” Holly had no idea how she felt about Wren’s budding musical talents, but Dan’s evident pride made her smile. Ross burst into the scene and she gently shoved him toward Emily. “This is Ross, our other partner.”

“Hi,” Ross said. He shook hands, got the jackets tied up. Dan was leading Rich into the kitchen while Wren leg-clung to Dan’s side, and Emily was asking Ross what he did, which somehow led to him explaining at great depth about Gameoververse. 

By the time he was done they’d circled the kitchen table. “A house filled with talent!” Emily said, and Holly could feel her own awkwardness, which made Holly feel a lot better.

Maybe dinner wouldn’t be a total disaster.

*** 

And it wasn’t, though Holly worried that she’d overcooked the chicken. She couldn’t and didn’t taste it but no one complained as they traded stories and got merrier on wine (or in Wren’s case, Kool Aid). Ross cleared the table and Dan ran water over the dishes while Holly shepherded them into the living room and switched on the TV. She’d just handed along the controls when Emily held the baby aloft.

“Can you hold her? I really have to go to the bathroom.”

“Oh! Sure…” Holly said, and suddenly she had an armful of Tawny. Holly peered into the baby’s face as if she were trying to divinate something magical and saw flecks of Rich’s very patrician features, Emily’s long eyelashes, and a tuft of growing blond hair that hopefully wouldn’t recede someday like her father’s had. 

Her emotions were somewhat muted. She’d had a mild fondness for other people’s children – hadn’t minded sitting for Brian and Rachel’s or Ross’ and Dan’s nephews, before Wren had come – but she didn’t look at them and feel what she felt about Wren. Holly supposed that was natural. 

Dan came into the room with Ross at his heels a moment later and let out a soft gasp. “This is so ridiculously cute,” he said. 

“Do you want to hold her?”

“Fu….fudge yeah,” he said, censoring himself as she handed over the baby and Wren immediately launched herself into Holly’s lap.

Holly let Wren snuggle up to her, gently untangling the red-brown nest. Wren’s feet kicked the sofa as she melodramatically yawned. 

“If you’re tired,” Holly said, “you can go upstairs to bed…”

“I’m awake!” Wren said immediately, and flopped around in Holly’s grip to watch her father with the baby.

Holly was watching Dan too. His face had softened, almost glowing, as he watched Tawny suck on her own fist between babbling bursts of baby talk. He looked up and caught Holly’s eye.

“Dan…” she started. 

“What?” he said. “Why are you looking at me that way?”

“Because I know how you think,” she told him. 

“How do I think?” Dan asked innocently. 

Holly pushed her daughter’s hair out of her eyes. “Wren, sweetie, would you like to teach Daddy how to play Plants vs Zombies again?”

She sighed dramatically. “I keep trying but he puts too many pea shooters in the same lane anyway,” she said.

“Be patent with him,” Dan says. “It takes him a long time to learn.”

“I can hear you,” Ross said flatly, but took Wren by the hand and she very officiously started teaching Ross and Rich how to play.

Once they were alone Holly spoke up. “Now that Wren’s weaned and going to school having another baby would be a good idea,” Holly said.

“I’d never say that,” Dan said. “I remember what it was like when you were pregnant.” But he kept bouncing Tawny, a sweet expression melting his features into a welcoming beacon. 

“But you always wanted to have more than one kid,” she pointed out.

“And you never wanted to have even one. I’m not going to pressure you.”

“But?” she led.

He sighed. “But do you miss how Wren was when she was tiny?”

“Do you mean ‘do you miss the sore boobs, temper tantrums, throwing up, sleepless nights and hemorrhoids?” Holly snorted. “We were terrified and I was miserable for awhile.”

“But there were good times!” This time she let out a cold, sarcastic laugh. He poked her and she poked right back. “And we would know what we’re doing this time.”

“Does any parent ever know what they’re doing?”

He replied, “Did I ever tell you about the time Avi left me in a grocery cart by mistake?” She reached over and patted his cheek. Dan nestled against her palm and sighed. “I love Wren, but sometimes I do miss having a baby around,” he said. “How do you feel about it?”

Holly honestly didn’t know. Her thought process was interrupted by the appearance of Emily. “Sorry about that,” she said, taking Tawny eagerly back. “I hope she wasn’t any trouble to you.”

“None at all,” Holly said, but she kept her eyes on Dan.

“I love you,” he said, soft and sweet, vulnerable as the baby he’d held.

She loved him too, even though her mind had turned itself into one enormous question mark.


End file.
